wraftery

FD was called for a guy at the beach who was knee deep in the water and started to faint. Two bystanders were keeping him upright.
The FF making the report called it a "Sinkable Episode."

Have a great retirement

Ah, yes, the Math. Forget any complicated formulas, you will be too shaky to punch in the numbers correctly on to your iPhone, and you will wind up with numbers like a million gallons.
Try this: Do a few foam drills and get a feel for how much fire surface area 10 gallons of foam will cover. (Use 10 gallons because it's easier to do the math in your head) When you get to the real fire, wing a guess at how many times your 10 gallon drill would take to fit into this big fire and multiply. If your fire is 10 times bigger than your 10 gallon drill, then you would need 10x10gal, or 100gal of foam. (Of course if the real fire is smaller than your 10 gal Drill fire, then just use the two cans that are on the rig....Duh!) Now, take that answer you got and multiply it by 10 again. It sounds like over-ordering foam but you will surely have enough to do the job. Even if you over-ordered, you will have to re-stock anyway because you used a lot of foam.
It's like the old NFA Fire Flow Formula. If you have a 2ft x 2ft couch cushion burning in a 1 1/2 residential dwelling that is 25 x 35, by using the formula, you will need about a gallon of water to complete extinguishment. This is normally done by the Can Man with 1 1/2 gallons left to cover rekindle. However, to put this fire out, and to comply with standards we must amass 1- 1 1/2" attack line, a backup line, a 5" supply line, and 17 people.
While you guys were out working on the hurricane, I had time to think this up. Thanks for all your hard work.

A word to IC's:
If you are anywhere near New Rochelle and get a run requiring foam, special call Capt Nechis as a Technical Specialist. (And I am not kidding or being sarcastic either.)

I will play devil's advocate here and wonder why no one seems to want to acknowledge the downsides of consolidation.
Here are some that I know of, all of these coming from real life experiences with the centralized dispatch point in our county.
1. Lack of accountability. With the local dispatch centers there is better accountability in that if a dispatcher makes a mistake, the fire or EMS chief can go to the police chief and have the tapes pulled and appropriate corrective action taken. With the centralized center, any complaints that are submitted get dropped into the memory hole and you hear the same dispatchers making the same mistakes over and over again.
2. Lack of accountability (part 2). Local dispatchers follow local protocols designed by the agencies they service. Centralized dispatch follows their own protocols. Don't like it? tough, deal with it.
3. Loss of local knowldege: Even with all of the computerized maps and reference sources, there are some situations that you can't beat local knowledge
4. Competition for air time. With budgets being the way they are, this is a very real concern as you could end up with too few dispatchers listening to too many channels. Also could happen because of poorly designed radio systems trying to put too many departments on too few frequencies or talk-groups.
Now, I am not against consoldiation per say. But it needs to be done correctly, and after careful study to see if it is really the best option

Check out youtube on a search using "Thamesford Fire-Lessons Learned"
It is one of the best critiques I have ever seen.
Sorry I had to give you a phrase to search, but for some reason, I couldn't give you a link but my computer is giving me a hard time

Check out youtube on a search using "Thamesford Fire-Lessons Learned"
It is one of the best critiques I have ever seen.
Sorry I had to give you a phrase to search, but for some reason, I couldn't give you a link but my computer is giving me a hard time

Check out youtube on a search using "Thamesford Fire-Lessons Learned"
It is one of the best critiques I have ever seen.
Sorry I had to give you a phrase to search, but for some reason, I couldn't give you a link but my computer is giving me a hard time

Check out youtube on a search using "Thamesford Fire-Lessons Learned"
It is one of the best critiques I have ever seen.
Sorry I had to give you a phrase to search, but for some reason, I couldn't give you a link but my computer is giving me a hard time

Check out youtube on a search using "Thamesford Fire-Lessons Learned"
It is one of the best critiques I have ever seen.
Sorry I had to give you a phrase to search, but for some reason, I couldn't give you a link but my computer is giving me a hard time

It looks to me like the spot the MPO cleared was not for the engine but for the ladder. Look at the spot he cleared. Was he thinking "Truck gets the front of the building?" That A/D corner is right where the truck should be spotted to cover two sides of the building. Also as capt2102 said, heavy fire on the roof of a 9 story building with no water on the fire. It could be a roofing materials fire except that I think I heard a Sprinkler Gong ringing in the background. That means that there is fire below what you can see in the video. This is at least a 2-alarm fire, maybe a third. Do you think maybe the engine was leaving room for at least two trucks?

This was a great judgment call by the officer. All the driver did was gently push the cars out of the way. He didn't slam into them. Heavy fire on the top floor of an 8 or 9 story bldg., no evidence of water on the fire (no white smoke). Great job by the MPO. That's why they put big front bumpers on fire engines.

Because you can stretch hose but you can not stretch ladders.
When working as a flycar medic covering a number of different communities I watched depts. that never understood the value of this. Was amazed when the chiefs would order the ladder to stay away from the building so the engines could stretch in. At one fire, after the above happened, it was determined that the aerial was needed, so 1,800 feet of charged 5" hose was manually dragged out of the way so the ladder that was ordered away could make the front of the building.

A rule almost written in stone:
Truck gets the front of the building
IT DOESN'T MATTER IF YOUR DEPARTMENT IS BIG OR SMALL, the rule still stands

You can't do that if there are four engines blocking the way

A rule almost written in stone:
Truck gets the front of the building
IT DOESN'T MATTER IF YOUR DEPARTMENT IS BIG OR SMALL, the rule still stands

You can't do that if there are four engines blocking the way

you got my interest, you have staffing for 4 pieces of apparatus, but the truck isn't a priority. If it is sometimes last, and sometimes not at all, you don't need water, you need firefighters.

It slices, it dices, it chops....
Remember those Ronco commercials? That stuff never worked well, did it?
Whenever you buy something that claims to do lots of things, it rarely does any one of those things well .
That's my feeling on quints.
Then somebody says "we have a quint, why do we need an engine?" And then POOF! The Lay-off Genie appears.

It slices, it dices, it chops....
Remember those Ronco commercials? That stuff never worked well, did it?
Whenever you buy something that claims to do lots of things, it rarely does any one of those things well .
That's my feeling on quints.
Then somebody says "we have a quint, why do we need an engine?" And then POOF! The Lay-off Genie appears.

It slices, it dices, it chops....
Remember those Ronco commercials? That stuff never worked well, did it?
Whenever you buy something that claims to do lots of things, it rarely does any one of those things well .
That's my feeling on quints.
Then somebody says "we have a quint, why do we need an engine?" And then POOF! The Lay-off Genie appears.

I should take that comment about bigger balls in NY and run with it, but I won't. Put a guy in a room full of fire and he won't care what city he's in.

I should take that comment about bigger balls in NY and run with it, but I won't. Put a guy in a room full of fire and he won't care what city he's in.

I should take that comment about bigger balls in NY and run with it, but I won't. Put a guy in a room full of fire and he won't care what city he's in.

Up this way, until recently all we had was candle pin bowling so the balls aren't much bigger than a softball.

Correct For incinerators you used it somewhat like chimney chains. They were used as the line was being stretched. As for water, we had a Doohickey that went over the faucet (all incinerator closets had sinks) and had about 4 feet of rubber hose and a shower head. Handy little tools they were.
They went by the wayside when the EPA got rid of incinerators

Correct For incinerators you used it somewhat like chimney chains. They were used as the line was being stretched. As for water, we had a Doohickey that went over the faucet (all incinerator closets had sinks) and had about 4 feet of rubber hose and a shower head. Handy little tools they were.
They went by the wayside when the EPA got rid of incinerators